This Event was for the DOGS!

Dark Star hosted an event for International Geocaching Day in a park not far from our house. We were so excited to see lots of cachers AND their dogs! I tried to get photos of all the doggos, but think I missed a few!

International Geocaching Day With SWAG

July 4th GeoArt

My July 4th geocaching adventure satisfied several of the things I enjoy about geocaching.
1.  Completing geoart
2.  Completing a challenge
3.  Completing the annual Summer souvenir challenge by Groundspeak
4.  Caching with friends
5.  Road trips

At a Geowoodstock planning event, another couple and Dark Star and myself decided to find all of the "Get Your Smile On In Seguin" geoart caches. I had been solving them for some weeks now. As of the start of our trip, there were 87 published; however, 3 more were published while we were caching the series! We worked together to solve them in the field and ended up finding all 90 that were currently published. 

If we pass a Buc-ee's, we are going to stop. If we stop, we are probably going to get a photo!

 We left Arlington around 6 pm, and arrived at this cache around 10:30. It was a planned stop; however, it was just a fortunate coincidence that it was less than 5 miles from our lodging for the evening! 100 Souvenir Challenge

Finding Hidden Creatures 

The cache containers were all the same; just the hiding styles were different.

 ghostrider2099 and CallMeVelma signing a log

 We completed the Hidden Creatures challenge today!

Geocaching with friends is awesome! Getting all of our target caches, completing geoart, and completing a challenge makes it even sweeter!

Goodbye, 2017! Hello, 2018!

In 2017, I found 136 caches, which translates to 0.3726 caches per day. That was my 4th lowest full year since I begin in 2002! Looking back at my numbers, it's no surprise that my highest years involve my attendance at a Mega event. I missed both Geowoodstock and the Texas Challenge last year, and that doesn't happen too often. We'll see what 2018 brings!

We do have a tradition of trying to find a cache on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, and we were able to do even though it was super cold!

Last Cache of 2017

First Cache of 2018

FTF!

While having dinner at No Frills Grill with Roogles! in attendance, he mentioned that his newest puzzle had just published and there was a nod to Volbeat in it! I basically ignored the Buzztime Trivia and most of my fellow dinner companions to solve the puzzle! Since I was first to solve the puzzle, which doesn't happen very often to me at all, I decided to try to be first to find also. Dark Star and I had to head the opposite way from home, but we were successful!

Covered!!!

Concert and a Cache or a Song and a Smilie!

Dark Star and I went to see Govt. Mule in Dallas at the Majestic Theater. We had some time and decided to see if we could find at least one cache in the area before the doors opened. There were a couple of nearby caches, and this one looked like it would be a good one to try on a Saturday night. As we were walking to ground zero, we even passed by the bass player talking on his cell phone! 
There was a couple with their dogs sniffing around very near to gz as we walked up. As they continued their walk, we began our search. This was a bison tube stuck in the bottom of a rock and there were a great number of rocks to look at. Lucky for us, no one was around, and only a couple of people walked by. We decided to look at the photos for a hint, and one photo showed that we were several feet away from the spot. The hint didn't help with this one because it's no longer near the sign. That's okay. We found it, signed it, took a selfie, and headed out for some good tunes!

GC5GN88 Downtown Fun #4

G.O.S.-Group Caching

Two weekends in a row I've gone group geocaching. This week I joined the GOS to find puzzle caches. Many years ago, a group of 6 ladies decided to go geocaching on weekdays during summer and called themselves the Girls of Summer. They decided to start hosting events so that more females that had the day off during the week could join them. There are always some "girly men" that are welcome to join the fun. I have always enjoyed these events and have even hosted a couple in the past.

Drives provided a magnet for the side of the van!

There is a series in the Anna area of over 100 puzzles. The unsolved coordinates spell out the name Terren, named for the cacher who created them. When I heard that was our goal, I started solving puzzles. By the event I had 64 of them solved. Drives supplied the group with a list of 80 caches for us to find before lunch. He even rented a 13 person van so that most of us could go together. That was so much fun! Zekes Uncle created stickers that said GOS and 8/14/17 for us to place on the logs.

Having fun on the van!

With Drives driving (appropo) and KLCE navigating, we were able to find 54 caches from 9:30-1:00! We had no DNFs, and didn't have too much trouble finding any of the containers. 

 We found a few different cache container types. I've seen pill bottles before; however, I think these were from a vet. 

Gilliansage and TX Diva

  I was sitting on the front bench behind the driver and navigator between Gilliansage and my mom, inolaok. Besides being able to see out the front (I get motion sickness) I was able to visit with Gilliansage throughout the event! It made it easy to jump out and get a lot of the caches.  

 It sometimes takes several sets of eyes to come up with the cache.

 This girlyman, J27Smith, was a valuable member of the finding team today! 

Most of the roads on our route looked like this. We were on a few busier roads, but our driver was awesome at finding the perfect places to pull over. 

sandbassqueen on the hunt

 Drives gave me this coin for helping out by solving many of the puzzles. What an awesome gesture! 

 Having lunch after a morning of caching has always been a very enjoyable part of the group caching experience. This day we ate at Crow's Country Cafe in Anna. Cute place with some really good food! A few people had the buttermilk pie; however, I was stuffed with my lunch! 

 We even had some cachers that met us just for lunch, or that cached in their own vehicles today. 

 Where in the world did that come from? My lips are sealed.

 Another gift from fellow geocachers. Cachers that raise chickens brought 6 dozen eggs to share, and I ended up with a carton! I love how most geocachers are very giving people! Thank you , BigCarbonFootprint and Dreamcacher V!

It wouldn't be a GOS event without a group photo. We are missing one cacher (DCV)  who had to leave early.

Wynnwood Park Walking Series

My friend Kevin, aka KD Solo, posted on Facebook that he'd like to do the 19 caches in the Wynnwood Park Walking Trail series today. My mom, sister and I joined 11 other cachers at the trailhead to do some caching and walking. I really enjoy caching with groups sometimes. Walking and talking can make the time and distance really seem much less than what it is.

 HOWEVER! WOW! It was so stinking hot! I had one bottle of water with me and I really needed 2 by the time I was finished with the 3 mile hike! Hydrate people!  I can't stress that enough.

The path and area are really nice, so if you want to do this series, here's a link to the first cache:

Wynnwood Park Walking Trail #1

 Here is most of the group before heading out.

 The trail was wide and flat the whole way. Hikers have to share the trail with golf carts for awhile.

 Water hazard for the golfers: nice view for us

 One side was the golf course and one side was this

 I didn't see much wildlife today. The animals were smart enough to stay out of the intense heat.

 We spied a huge tire in the field. We were too hot and tired to go investigate.

 Cool vegetation

 I love these garden spiders. 

 It was so hot by the time we got to the 1.5 mile that I was ready to just dive on in!

 Here we are at the farthest point. We are ready to find the final 4 caches in the series and get out of the heat!

It wouldn't be a blog without a nice nature photo!